ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
This article is part of the Research TopicImpact of Environmental Factors on the Health of Children and Older Adults, Volume IIView all 4 articles
Effect of Air Pollution on Online Medical Consultations for Ocular Surface Diseases in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
- 2The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
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Background: Ocular Surface Diseases (OSDs), such as dry eye disease and conjunctivitis, pose significant public health challenges globally, especially in China where they affect millions and lead to substantial economic costs. With the development of digital technology, online consultations have become increasingly popular, yet the association between environmental factors and the volume of online consultations for OSDs remains unclear. This study explores the impact of environmental factors, particularly air pollution, on the volume of online consultations for OSDs in China. Methods: We used web crawler technology to obtain OSDs online consultation data from China's leading online medical platform “Good Doctor Online” from 2015-2019, and used correlation methods and fixed-effects regression models to analyze the impact of air pollution on the volume of online consultations for OSDs, and its potential regional variations and seasonal trends. Results: The results reveal significant positive correlations between online consultations for OSDs and air pollutants, notably PM10, and NO2 (p < 0.05). Regression analyses demonstrate that Air Quality Index (AQI) and PM10 significantly affect online consultation volumes, indicating that worsening air quality directly alters health-seeking behavior. Additionally, the impact of air pollution on online consultations shows regional variability: AQI, PM2.5, and CO were notably impactful in the Fenwei Plain, SO2 in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region, and NO₂ in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Zhujiang Delta regions. Seasonal trends also showed peaks in consultation volumes corresponding with periods of high pollution, particularly during summer and winter. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that air pollution is positively associated with online consultations for OSDs, with AQI and PM10 showing particularly robust effects. The impacts vary by region—different pollutants play a dominant role in different areas—and consultations tend to peak during highly polluted summer and winter seasons.
Keywords: Air Pollution, Ocular surface diseases, Online health consultations, spatiotemporal analysis, China
Received: 12 May 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kang, Yuan and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chenyi Kang, kangcheny@foxmail.com
Siqi Yan, yansiqi92@xjtu.edu.cn
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